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What’s it going to take for UCLA fans to sell out the Rose Bowl regardless of visitors’ hot or dud status?

The Nebraska-UCLA game drew 71,530 fans to the Rose Bowl last week, but I’m still convinced there were more Nebraska fans in attendance. Nebraska fans were loud. They were proud. They were a moving Red Sea in UCLA’s historic home venue. But in the second half — and certainly in the waning minutes when Nebraska’s fall was all but inevitable — UCLA fans grew louder, stronger, even feistier. They pounded their chest, flexed their muscles ala Johnathan Franklin. The press box felt small tremors. That’s how loud it was. For as long as anyone can remember, UCLA fans finally were proud. They let it be known with a roaring thunder on Franklin’s 9-yard touchdown pass from Brett Hundley with 2:13 left in the game. The atmosphere in the aftermath was electric, and UCLA players took notice. The plea came after the game via Twitter from UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr: “I’ve never had so much fun playing. Can the Rose Bowl be like that every Sturday please!!”

There you have it. A plea from one of your own. After last week’s performance there’s no reason to think UCLA can’t improve on last year’s attendance figures.

UCLA was second in the Pac-12 in attendance last year, averaging 56,644 fans in six home games. The Rose Bowl’s capacity is 91,500 and the Bruins were 31st in the nation in attendance according to figures released by the NCAA last year. UCLA had decent crowds last year. The Bruins had 42,685 against San Jose State in the home opener. That figure jumped the following week to 54,583 against Texas. The Pac-12 opener three weeks later drew 64,217 against Washington State. Those aren’t numbers to sniff at, but in a stadium with a capacity of over 90,000 it’s no wonder the Rose Bowl can sometimes look half empty.

The home opener against Nebraska last week undoubtedly was going to drive up figures because of the Huskers’ strong fan base that travels well. On top of that, Nebraska was coming in as a nationally-ranked team with an explosive offense in tow. The intrigue was there, and coupled with the fact UCLA won its season opener in similar fashion meant fans were in for a slug fest.

But I’ll ask my question again: what’s it going to take for UCLA fans to sell out the Rose Bowl? Must there always be an incentive that a big-time school is in town? Shouldn’t the Bruins’ 49-24 win over Rice in the opener have been enough? UCLA is 2-0, but if you’re a betting man do you put your money on the Rose Bowl’s attendance figure to drop, remain the same or eclipse the home opener’s figure?

UCLA still is not in session and weeks away before students get back to the grind, which probably explains why the UCLA band was forced to play the national anthem from the stands and no halftime show to show for it.

Say the figure drops this week for Houston … fine, I think the players can live with fans in the 50,000-range, but there’s no reason why fans can’t be as lively as they were last week. There’s no reason for the stadium not to be rocking and roaring come Saturday. It’s a night game, giving fans the chance to get the party started early and into the sunset, all before kickoff.

After all, your UCLA Bruins are 2-0. They’re No. 2 in the nation in total offense with the nation’s leading rusher in Johnathan Franklin.

UCLA is showing promise and signs that it’s one step closer to reaching the upper echelon of college football.

I have been going to games for about 20 years now and in my early 40s. One thing I have noticed over the years that induces a mellowness at both football and basketball games is the attitude of many of the 50 and over crowd. Many of them get upset when you stand up to watch the game. For obvious reasons they would like to sit most of the game if not the entire game. I’ve seen many of the complainers about standing even become sort ” View Sheriffs” determining what situations are appropriate for standing. I know everyone pays a lot for their seats but, there comes a point when one must decide the viewing might be more comfortable in the elderly or disabled section riming the stadium or in the comfort or their home with a nice HD plasma, kitchen and bathroom nearby. Another idea if Rose Bowl were to start filling up is to put a big screen outside the stadium ala US Open style where fans could view the game live sitting in comfortable lawn chairs like many tailgaiters do and never have to stand up.

Some college programs stand most of the game. I witnessed it at Oregon. Standing gets you excited and gets the team amped up. Have you ever seen or been to a soccer game in a foreign country. If you have, you know what I’m talking about. So how about it my mellower fans? Go nuts and stand up!

Anonymous

This is LA, people. It’s by far the biggest bandwagon city in the nation when it comes to sports. While true fans exist for each team (Lakers, Dodgers, Kings, UCLA and $outhern Cal), they are easily outnumbered by fickle followers whenever a team happens to be on a hot streak.

Of the 90,000+ people filling the Mausoleum in South Central each week, 40,000 of those so-called-fans were wearing true blue and gold back in the 90s. They’re the same ones who pull Giants jerseys over Green Bay ones from one year to the next, and suddenly seem to all own LA Kings merchandise.

If UCLA wants to fill the Rose Bowl with blue again, there is a simple formula. Just win in LA, and they will come.

Glass Prince

As a season ticket holder during some good and bad years (95-97), I have to say that making the trek out to the Rose Bowl from campus SUCKS. Sitting in horrible traffic for an hour (or more) on a Saturday is a pain. I still went to every game, but I can understand how people who are not diehards see it as a major inconvenience (and these are the people who are not coming to the Rose Bowl). I know the likelihood of building a football stadium near campus is very low, but I bet attendance would increase by at least 10-20K if there was a stadium near campus.

Mike Dietrich

Miguel,

One opening game against a bottom feeder in college football will not erase 15 years of futility. If they can continue to win, I would epect a 2/3rds full stadium which would be a nice 20% increase over previous years

East coast Mike

bruincheerleader

Great comment Miquel…and i am glad u said it…it is so sad that even when school is in session the student section is still never filled to capacity…that in itself is a shame…and about those 50 year olds!…really?…i am over fifty and when i go to ucla games i stand i cheer and i come home with no voice after yelling so much…not all geezers are the same…my older brother who went to the nebraska game told me he hasn’t yelled that much in years and had a sore through from yelling to boot…we are never going to be oregon…but we can be UCLA and fill the bowl…the rose bowl is one of the loudest places when there are people in the stands…

Ted

Who is that dude in the Front row that is sitting down when everybody is up? Dude needs to give up his seats…

Marc

Come check us out in section 22. We go nuts. On the other hand, we see section 21 next to us basically sit on their hands. It is a point of contention. It’s a freaking football game; it will get loud and crazy. If you don’t like it, stay home!

Also, increased attendance at higher profile games is largely due to opposition fans filling up the end zones and other sections. I’ve never liked that the end zones fill up with opposing fans. Put them up in the corners, damn it. And F sc’s band. Why the hell do they get the south end zone? That band does not shut up, even when they lose (13-9).

Higher attendance can be achieved, but UCLA needs to modify a few things to get their fans in the seats.

Season ticket holder since 1998, so I can remember when the Rose Bowl was full every home game. The formula: Win!

Anonymous

A few things need to happen:

1. WIN. Getting a ticket was pretty tough in 1998
2. Continue programs that allow youngsters, military, fire, police, etc. to get general admission tickets for free
3. Change from Quarter to Semester system (probably not going to happen, but it’s pretty tough to get students there when school doesn’t even start until the end of September. I was at the Nebraska game in 1988, and we had the same issue.
4. Provide easier transportation options for students: Even 20+ years ago it was a hassle getting from Westwood to Pasadena. Our fraternity used to rent busses (those were some trips we can’t write about), but all that costs money
5. Get the urban planning professors to come up with the ultimate on campus combo stadium/parking/recycling plant/solar energy converter (ok wishful thinking)

All in BruinFan

Thanks for calling out Bruin Fans. You are correct, now is the time for us fans who have longed for an exciting and well coached team to do our part and keep the Rose Bowl Rockin at every home game.

OK Bruin Fans, it is a fact that we have been subjected to a decade of miserable football. Mora and company are changing that get to the Rose Bowl and support your team.

Bill

If they continue to play like they did the first two weeks, the Rose Bowl will fill up! Watching the games the last number of years have been pretty brutal enough just on TV, let alone going to the Rose Bowl!

The Rose Bowl is one of the better venues to get to and from the games no matter what the size of the crowd!

Section 15

Sec 15 comes strong every game. Why?? Because we are the 1st line of defense against the opposition fans. And the best part, is the psychological warfare we practise against the opposing teams during warmups. I personally take credit for getting into the heads of the starting center and guards of Nebraska, as they responded to me. Can you say safety?! Lol! My UCLA Psychology degree comes in handy at sporting events. Lol

JoeBrun15

Two things have to happen in order for UCLA to sell out the Rose Bowl.

The first is obvious: win.

The second is market the team! It is extremely disappointing to see how pathetic the UCLA Athletic Department is under the so-called leadership of Dan Guerrero.

Under Guerrero, their idea of marketing is selling tickets to opponents. They did this with Fresno State where they actively marketed to our opponents. That is pathetic.

The student section is never full because they’ve made it very expensive for students to go to games. Student season tickets are $99. Individual student game tickets are $15. To a student, that can be a lot of money.

Cut the cost for students to go. You have to charge something, but it should be as inexpensive as possible to allow the largest number of students to attend.

And, then, actively encourage the students to come out!

You do have to remember that school does not start until late September. So, the student section at the first few home games is always more sparse than later games.

While we’re at it, schedule home games later in the season if possible. I know that eliminating September home games is impossible, but with 3 home games before school starts, you are making it very difficult to fill the student section.

But, ultimately, the real way to fill the Rose Bowl on a regular basis is to bring in an Athletic Director who understands football.

Coach Mora’s success so far has been welcomed by every Bruin. But, Dan Guerrero is still on the hook for all his other missteps, like trying to screw the student section at new Pauley and bungling his coaching searches. Sure, the hiring of Coach Mora has been a great thing for UCLA, but remember that one of the reasons he was hired was because no one else would take the job.

Replacee Dan Guerrero with a competent AD and watch the changes that get made across the board that encourage folks to come out.

clone12

Since it is unlikely that UCLA switches from a quarter to a semester system, how about having the Pac-12 powers that be frontload UCLA’s schedule with road games in September? It’s would be a win-win situation for everyone: UCLA will draw more crowds, the band will have a half-time show and the Pac-12 network will feature games with a fuller Rose Bowl.

Chris

Replace Dan Guerrero with a competent AD !

UB – Ultimate Bruin

Miguel, insightful post. Welcome to our world. I am a 1979 graduate and over 50. My group yells it guts out on every defensive down and stands on every third down. We would stand on every defensive down, but the “wallets” complain! (I am a wallet too, sitting about midfield in Tunnel 19.) In the past, we have had the wallets COVER THEIR EARS as we yelled, and have even been in arguments with them to “tone it down.” These decayed UCLA fans should stay at home and watch in their LAY-Z-BOY. When we went to Austin and watched UCLA beat Texas, most of the UCLA fan base had to STAND up in the heat for most of the game because the Texas fans in front stood the entire game. WE LOVED IT! Now, last week was a bit different. We noted that the wallets in Tunnel 19 actually rose to their feet on most defensive third downs. And no one covered their ears when we busted a gut yelling as loud as possible. Perhaps we have truned a corner. Time will tell. Also, to encourage more fans, MAKE IT FAN FRIENDLY!!!!!!!!!!!! The HORRIBLE tailgate rules make it very difficult to get the fans’ juices flowing. I’ve been to other tailgates (Austin, Tx, for example), and it is night and day. THE MORGAN CENTER NEEDS TO RELAX THE RULES A BIT TO ALLOW LONGER AND MORE INTENSE TAILGATING. HAVE A SECTION FOR STUDENTS ONLY AND PROVIDE SOME INCENTIVE FOR ALL THE STUDENTS TO COME OUT AND PARTY. You can do this and still maintain control and security. It works elsewhere. I know this does not generate “REVENUE” for donut day, but it creates a fan friendly environment that will eventually lead to greater attendance and loyaty, WHICH DOES RESULT IN GREATER REVENUE. My two cents.

Mike H class of 1990

1. Give EVERY freshman free tickets to every home game. In the long run, the money lost is not that much but you start building the culture of football within the student body, and to do that you need to lower the barriers that are in the way.

VB

I agree with everything expressed above, and I thank you Miguel for writing a piece on this. When I presented this problem to JOn Gold in a Q&A session, he downplayed the significance of building a football culture from the ground up. He simply attributed fan support to simply winning, which I think is only part of the problem.

The underlying problem is the way the ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT undervalues football. Case in point: They hired an unqualified coach in Karl Dorrell to save money, fired him, then hired a sketchy, mediocre coach in Rick Neuheisel to save money. It wasn’t until the homers at Bruinsnation and other diehard UCLA fans annihilated Morgan Center with complaints and demands for change that they opened their checkbook and put together a decent coaching staff and got the ball rolling on new facilities.

Bottom line: When the leadership of UCLA doesn’t care about football tradition, neither will the fickle fans. There will always be diehards, like myself and the rest of the UBTA, who have been to every game for the past decade, get there early, scream loud and stay late, but the fickle fans will only come when we not only start winning, but also display and market UCLA as a school that CHERISHES football success.

And I agree with UB. The hampering down on tailgate rules is another nail in the football enthusiasm coffin that the athletic department is created. We used to enjoy getting to the Rose Bowl at sunrise to celebrate gameday and partake in UCLA’s rich football tailgate culture. The Rose Bowl and Morgan Center decided to shorten tailgate and creat more ridiculous rules than a pre-school. Not sayin that tailgating is the only imperative factor in creating a football culture, but it sure doesn’t help when the school tries to destroy the tradition.

VB’s two cents.

Anonymous

ticket holder – i’m 54 and starting to understand what it is like to be over 50 physically for the average person. though i’m probably more healthy/fit than the average 54 yr old, i notice a decline in my ability to shout the entire game. Of course as an educated fan i am only shouting a little before the snap when our defense is on the field, prolonged continuous shouting until the ball leaves the center’s hands, intended to interfere with the signal caller’s ability to change plays easily. but instead of being able to do so all game long, i notice that my voice goes suddenly silent mid-shout about three to four times a game. Not to foreshadow your future, but that is a possibility for ya.

secondly, as was kinda touched on, SECTION COUNTS. I had tickets in section 16 and refused to sit down during a strategic part of one SUC game. My idealism and stubbornness – not drunkenness – got me kicked out that day (later I came back in via ‘fan’ still selling a ticket very late in the game), but the next season you bet I chose another section. the blue hairs in that section 16 didn’t even respect the sanctity of UCLA/SUC game. Moving to section two, everybody stands when it is an important defensive third down, minimally. Nobody has *ever* asked me to sit down in section two or three. My recommendation is move out of those section 16 areas where blue hairs rule… come join us in the LOUD section, eventually all the loudness will spread and we’ll have real fans helping the D in a bigger more concentrated area and getting props from the players. No need to be agist, it is more about the section. Section counts. Come to our section, I guarantee you are not up and shouting as much as I am, and nobody will complain even if u are.

VB

Yeah, section 19 used to be, and still is to some degree, a very old and boring section. Like UB said, we have been yelled at, cursed at and scolded for “standing too much,” even though we only stood on 3rd downs and when a big exciting play happened. Not only that, we had old farts in front of us covering their ears when we would yell and were told to “chill out” on several occasions. Pretty pathetic.

Section 19 was better on Saturday, we have a few young former “Den” students who pump everyone up and get them to stand on 3rd down so that we aren’t the only ones anymore.

I agree, section does indeed matter, but I’ll take a boring section in the shade of the press box over an exciting section in the hot sun any day!

Anonymous

to glass prince – get out of the house once in a while, there’s a whole lotta stuff outside your tiny confined neighborhood, and most of it in LA involves traffic. If you want to avoid traffic come and tailgate about 5 hours before game time, the decrease in traffic is considerable. Being among the diehards, I’m sure you already devote your entire game day to ucla football, so why not get to the stadium grounds earlier?

Anonymous

vb, when u gonna stop jumping the wall? there comes a time when u gotta give up donuts, surf & turf, and instead start lifting and eating better. buy into the regime change, celebrate it with a lttle toughness that your father apparently can’t handle any more. get a tan. Never Lie. Never Cheat. Never Steal . Don’t Whine. Don’t Complain. Don’t Make Excuses.

Jim Mora brings a new energy. I am excited to see effort, conditioning and coaching this season. We are making adjustments at halftime…like coaches know what they are doing! The team is poised…wow! I know only 2 wins, but the eyes don’t lie. The team is putting up yards making the games fun to watch again.
I had 4 seats from 1987 to 2011. It’s not just winning…it’s consistency. Its leaving 100% on the field…selling out.
ALL OUT – ALL GAME – ALL SEASON – MORABALL
I believe MORABALL will pack the RoseBowl.

clone12

“It wasn’t until the homers at Bruinsnation and other diehard UCLA fans annihilated Morgan Center with complaints and demands for change that they opened their checkbook and put together a decent coaching staff and got the ball rolling on new facilities”

So this “checkbook opening” is due all from BruinsNation et al complaining, even though this exact some amount of complaining for the past 7-8 years did nothing of the sort, and has nothing to do with the new TV revenue that just happened to coincide with this “checkbook opening”?

Bill

LA is a spread out town and having a team play 20 miles from campus doesn’t help. If the Rose Bowl was in downtown I think things would be different.

Nobody wants to make that drive, endure the 100 degree heat, (and the last few years watch the team lose) when they can sit at home and listen to Gus Johnson call the game on their HD set.

BRUIN SOUL

VB said that it was because the good folks at Bruinsnation pulled out their checkbooks and complained to Morgan Center that we now have a “decent” coaching staff and are in the process of improving our facilities…

YEAH RIGGGHHHTTT!!

That’s hilarious!

Not many people here (or anywhere else for that matter), except for a few jockers, care what people over at BN are doing or have to say. I agree that the new Pac 12 TV revenue along with ALL Bruins fans from all walks of life demanding something better than what we had over the last decade is what made the difference.

To give that much credit to BN is simply laughable.

Anonymous

tickets are just too expensive, especially for recent grads with not that much money. $40 for GA? are you kidding me?

BruinBot

Low UCLA attendance is usually blamed on the Rose Bowl being too far from campus. I agree this is a huge problem for students, but why is it a problem for alumni? Perhaps I’m incorrect, but I would imagine most alumni don’t still live in Westwood. In fact, I would imagine a large percentage of LA area alumni live in the the valley where life is more family friendly. I am one of the few alumni that live close to UCLA and even I hate driving to UCLA because of all the traffic in Westwood and on the 405. If I didn’t live in West LA, I would MUCH rather drive to Pasadena.

If anyone does know where alumni are concentrated, I’d be interested to know.

Pyperkub

1. An on-campus stadium. I don’t know any other D-1 (excuse me, FBS) team that has their home stadium 45-90 minutes away from campus, much less one that sells out regularly. A stadium in the VA (where JRS is) would be ideal.
2. Win – this can overcome 1, but only for big games.
3. Semester system, or quarters that start in August (both of which don’t make sense for academic reasons, but would contribute to a more fully stocked stadium).
4. Free bussing from the dorms + selling tickets at the dorms, and dorms open to freshman at the start of the football year.

Anonymous

I hope the UCLA admission folks consider one contributing factor to this mess. As an illustration, my high school had a similar focus on academics and athletics as UCLA, great at both. Back in the day, they had 5 groups of kids in one grade level, Honors, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s. At the football games, there was a big turnout of students, because we had a great team, and it was a private school, and a different time. The amount of students from each group in the stands decreased as the intelligence level of the group increased. Lots from groups 3,4,5 less from 2’s, very few from the Honors. A general rule was that the super-smart kids didn’t really go to football games. UCLA now is the most applied-to university, and the kids are all super-smart, therefore less kids are interested in going to the football games. This is a sad but unfortunate reality.

STOP BEING MEAN TO VB

The problem is that we need to get rid of the guy sitting at the bottom right of the photo and anyone else who has that demeanor during a live football game. what a loser.

Rob M

Class of ’98 (among the lucky alumni undefeated by $C)… so I’ve seen the RoseBowl rocking. The hardcore fans will come and watch anyone in Blue and Gold. Putting a good product (exciting/competitive) will bring the casual fans. Winning will bring the masses (bandwagon fans).

I’ve always wondered what it would take to have a consistently rabid crowd, and I think it takes some out-of-the-box thinking. Giving freshmen free tickets to build their love of the game might help grow the culture.

As a victim of the “wallets”, would it be too hard to create whole “sitting only/cheer politely” sections for the old folks under the press box (shady side). I know they’ve had their season tickets for 20-40 years… maybe they would enjoy sitting in their own section all together?

I don’t go to every game, but when I do go… I cheer like a maniac. Hell, I do that in front of my TV at home, so you better believe I am high-fiving everyone in my whole section if I am at the Bowl. Screw sitting in the shade… give me the fans that want to make a difference in the game.

VB

I have sat on both sides of the Rose Bowl, so believe me when I say that once you have sat in the shade on a 95 degree day for 12:30 game, watching all the people on the other side suffering in the close-to-hell heat, I would NEVER sit on the other side even if the tickets were free. Not worth suffering to watch a football game.

When UB and I went to Austin Texas 2 years ago, we STOOD in the 100 degree sun for 3.5 hours since the Texas fans NEVER SIT DOWN. Talk about diehard!

Anon

My only complain to all Bruins fans, QUIT SELLING YOUR SEASON TICKETS to OUR OPPONENTS !!!!! If you can’t go, give it to another Bruins who can go.

Give free tickets to incoming freshmen for free? The first they will do is to sell them. I think I saw a few strands of Nebraska fans at student sections last Saturday…

Anonymous

Nice post, but you’re simply wrong about the attendance proportions. I was at the game and I’d say there were more than twice as many UCLA fans as Nebbie fans. The thing is almost EVERY Husker fan was wearing that bright red and so they stood out, while many UCLA fans, as usual, weren’t wearing any shade of blue, let along true blue, so they just sort of blended in.

VB

Yeah, Miguel. That is the one thing you are wrong about in your post. The attendance was 71,000, and they estimated that 25,000 Nebraska fans MAX were in attendance. Not the proportion I would hope for, but the Nebraska fans did not outnumber the Bruin fans.

Anonymous

The UCLA administration has slowly over the years tried to change/prevent UCLA from developing a big time sports culture.

Case in point, is the removal of Frisbee at basketball games, the limiting of Strand at football games, and the new restrictions on tailgating.

A lot of people don’t like Frisbee and Strand, but you know what, they cared and actually tried to do something. The UCLA administration found that to be dangerous and tried to marginalize them as well as other fans like them.

Now you guys want to stand the entire game like real big time programs do? LOL. That would terrify the administration. I guarantee you they won’t let it happen.

All they want is to sell a lot of tickets to people who will sit civilly and quietly the entire game, spend a lot of money on script and gear, and then leave as soon as it is over. That is their perfect fan.

VB

That’s fine if they left when the game was over, but Bruin fans notoriously leave football games in after the 3rd quarter no matter what the score is.

Of course, the only thing that prevented fans from doing it this past Saturday was the fireworks incentive. Nevertheless, I still saw some fans leaving after the 3rd quarter when the game was TIED!

Big Ugly Llama

I’m afraid Miguel is trolling today.

Without lapsing into ad hominem arguments (how long you been on this beat, dude?), let me just say that the assessment of the Nebraska fans in this article was flat out wrong. They were the dullest, quietest visiting crowd we’ve seen in a long time. Even where they were massed together, they were mostly silent until third down and penalty situations, after which point they returned to sitting on their hands.

I’ve had nice seats in Section 3 for 15 years, and I usually have to tolerate loud, obnoxious visiting fans who purchase seats in my section. This time out, they were wearing red, but they were like church mice.

Now as much as I appreciate Miguel going all demagogue on the faithful, the backing facts are not present here. Best to bring in a spirited and hearty visiting crowd to embarrass all us fat wallets before writing the next article in this vein.

Oh, and we’ll be louder if they start serving beer again. 🙂

“Remember, the N on the helmet stands for KNOWLEDGE!”

Randor

If Nebraska had more than 30,000, it wasn’t by much. Alabama in 2000 had the largest non-conference visiting fan contingent I have seen at the RB. I believe they had ~35,000.

Anonymous

Winning fills stadiums. You could not get a ticket to a basketball game at Pauley in the 60’s and 70’s. Even for the lousy December games. After the program stopped annual runs through the tournament attendance dropped. Only two types of people attend games of poor or mediocre teams: True diehard fans and crazy sports fans we just appreciate the game and the environment. The rest are drawn by the quality of the product.

Nacho El Mecanico

Miguel, what is the expected attendance for this Saturday vs. Houston?

BE REAL

1. Win. And then win with style. And best of all, win every year (to build the fan’s confidence in you)

2. Return to geographically friendly the Coliseum (won’t happen)

3. Most students are not into football (heck, the Asians, 1/3 of ucla’s enrollment, don’t even treat it like their favorite sport) So lower the price of a tix in hopes that some of them might be tempted to attend a game and hopefully get hooked.

4. Fans could be more fan friendly, and perhaps more would attend. The zealots who like to scream and stand the entire game don’t influence the outcome one iota, and they take away the enjoyment from the “cooler” fans i.e. who wants to be next to a screamer or have someone in front standing up and blocking your view. Have a little bit more respect for those who don’t treat the game as if it were some holy war.

5. Be patient. This new t.v. contract resulted in mariginal football schools such as ucla to have the money to compete i.e. to hire quality coaches, which will result in better recruting in the football-rich Southern California market, which in turn will bring seasons of 8-4, 9-3, and sometimes 10-2.

South Bay Bruin

A new AD, PERIOD! Gurrero will NEVER do what it takes to sell out the Rose Bowl. Bureaucrats don’t have the know how….

Coach Thom

Has the Rose Bowl ever been totally sold out for any UCLA football game? I’d love to know what sporting event actually filled the Rose Bowl to capacity. Did the UCLA vs Michigan State Rose Bowl game in Jan 1966 fill the place? I don’t know. There are too many other fun things to do on a Saturday afternoon/evening in the Los Angeles area than to attract over 90,000 fans to a college football game. It’s also in Pasadena for God’s sake. I’m amazed we got 70,000 at last week’s game. Keep displaying attractive football, and the thousands will attend…I hope.

anonymous

I love UCLA, graduated in 2004, had season tix while attending. I kept my tickets after moving to San Diego and I would make the drive to all home games. I ended up moving to Louisiana for work and I still kept my tickets. Although I didn’t attend all the games, I was able to give them to friends so that they’d be able to go. After awhile, with the product on the field, I found it more and more difficult to give them away. Friends just didn’t want to drive, pay for parking, wait in traffic…pretty much any excuse you want to use.

Here in Louisiana, everything is LSU. If Tiger stadium were located 1,000 miles from campus, Tiger fans would still make the trip. A lot of people here start tailgating Friday, go to the game, and then drive to New Orleans to tailgate for the Saints games. Ticket prices are twice that of UCLA at LSU, and there is always a shortage. Lots of people travel to away games as well.

I think what most people are saying about “just win baby!” is true. If we start winning, people will show up. I remember when I was a freshman, some of my older friends talked about the ’98 season and making the drive to Washington to cheer our beloved Bruins. Winning fixes a lot of the problems we are talking about.

INSANITY

some of us like to SIT in the seat we paid a ton of $$$ for, it doesn’t mean we DON’T scream and yell and cheer on the Bruins!

Blueblood

FIRE Dan “The Dumb Arse” Guerrero! A simple quick fix. Bring in Terry Donahue to turn the Athletic Dept. around. Guerrero is the reason we have suffered for so long and attendance is down.

Anonymous

It’s easy to overlook the fact that, unlike most Division I schools, the Bruins don’t play home games on-campus. Schlepping from UCLA to the Rose Bowl and back is and can be a hassle, even more so when the team’s performance doesn’t always merit the commitment. Chances are, if UCLA had an on-campus stadium like they do at Cal, USC, Oregon and just about everywhere else, then more students would show up.
Then again, some of the blame belongs to apathy among fans, students included involved. The poor attendance numbers at Pauley Pavilion in the years leading up to the renovation would suggest as much.

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We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.